


Delta Earth Chronicles

by BinaryCoding



Series: Delta Earth [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Delta Earth, Gen, Honestly I love them, four idiots one braincell, so you start an entire new fic, tfw you need to get the feel of writing certain characters, the beginning is literally four chapters long for character development
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-05-13 07:43:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19246828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BinaryCoding/pseuds/BinaryCoding
Summary: original works are great amiright lol-------------------------------Earth has been as it’s always been - 7.3 billion humans strong, just as heated and full of existential dread as it’s always been. However, way before the modern age, before the first humans began to even exist, Earth had been bombarded by an unknown projectile wave, sending remnants of power into the ground to be buried and forgotten.Unfortunately, since then, things have been a little weird. Supernatural occurrences clustered around these remnants even though they were miles beneath the surface, and myths and legends arose of situations where something was more than average. Enhanced creatures that scored the earth and set fire to the trees. Humans who possessed extraordinary abilities. These remnants of power were soon discovered, warred over, fell from the human sphere of knowledge again and again.The year is 2014. Again, one of these remnants rises to the knowledge of the public, only this time the war will be fought with superheroes and supervillians, corporations and governments.Welcome to Delta Ray City, home of the Singularity, the secret battleground that no one can enter... and no one leaves.





	1. Kaylee: Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i know i barely use ao3 for writing, but i thought i would use it to store some original writing!  
> this is currently the place where i'm storing my writing for Delta Earth (as i'm currently calling it), a world of superheroes and professional idiots trying to stop the apocalypse and fighting. the usual. take these as scenarios within the world, since there's no current Big Plot/Writing Story but i still want to put out content on this.  
> if you would like more context, please go check out my worldanvil on this world (https://www.worldanvil.com/w/delta-earth-sporedragon34)! i'd love to get more advice, context, etc. on my work.  
> finally, if you enjoy this, i update the world majorly more-or-less weekly on the worldanvil, and i plan to put out some more original content in this universe every week as well! there's technically another story going on besides this one in this universe, so maybe check that out when it shows up!

_The year is gone but I am not._

Tap-tap-tap-tap-

_My rope was longer than I thought._

Kaylee, lost in the music, hadn't quite noticed the door was open until the loud crunch of a backpack being thrown from someone's shoulder sounded to her right. She opened her dark brown eyes, brushing some of her black hair away from her eyes. After a brief moment, she pulled aside her worn white headphones from an ear. Of course, in front of her was a dark blue plastic tin full of God-knew-what, which was supposed to be their make-up work for missing a field trip. An important one, to DC, that she couldn’t attend because her life was falling apart. The usual. Only about three tons of duct tape and seventeen thousand songs downloaded into her phone were holding it together right now.

The jock, who had entered from the door to her right, groaned. He slammed himself down into the nearest chair, his head tilting back with his hands moving to cover his face. Tanned brown skin led to an interesting choice of crimson-dyed hair, and as he came back into view, Kaylee could catch sight of coffee-brown eyes. Ah, familiar. From what she’d seen of the yearbook the last couple of years, this guy had to be the soccer team’s captain. His loud frustrated groan finally ended. She pulled her headphones down completely, careful to lower the volume so it was only really audible to her. 

"You're here 'cuz of Mr. Hardy too, right?" she asked. It came off as more chill and slightly more smug than she’d wanted it to, but it still caught his attention.

"Of course. What an asshole. Just ‘cause I can’t make it to his fuckin’ field trip, suddenly I have to be stuck in this mess-“ he gestured with his hands, tilting his head to look at the clock, “-with people I barely know!” The sharp angle of his chin jolted back as he looked at her with a mix of curiosity and contempt. “Who are you, anyways?!” He was obviously a bit angry at the situation, and not thinking clearly.

Kaylee put up both her hands in a surrendering gesture, partially to reassure the guy and partially to wave off her own awkwardness about the whole thing. A growing part of her really wanted to run over and just kick him where it hurts, but she managed to restrain that part. “Hey, we can save introductions for when the others show up.”

"Who the hell’s stupid enough to not have taken the field trip?” he muttered back, head buried in his hands again.

"Obviously the two of us,” she snidely remarked. He glared at her, but that was interrupted with the loud KA-CHUNK of the room’s door opening. They looked to the two other teens walking in, the door closing with a click behind them.

The girl leaned back against the empty teacher’s desk, eventually opting to hop up onto it, her long russet braid following her movements before thumping against the desk lightly. She scanned the others with purple eyes, her head lowering and the angle turning them back to blue again. “Well, this isn’t promising.” She looked down to her pale, slender hands, obviously not impressed. 

The boy, hesitantly pushing up his glasses with his pale fingers, frowned and took a seat opposite her and the tub of parts. His dirty blond hair was swept to the side, his rectangular glasses framing his sky blue eyes. “Okay, real nice of you.”

Kaylee sighed. “Okay, introductions first, then we figure out what Hardy wants from us. Sound good?”

The jock opposite her groaned again, but it was one of acceptance. “If you say so. And quit that tapping!”

Kaylee crossed her legs so that one leg was resting on top of the other. It wasn’t much help, considering she’d just gone to bouncing her leg, but it seemed to be better for him than just tapping the floor. “Right. I’m Kaylee, a senior, and I’m in Hardy’s third period class.” She looked to the door, but it didn’t seem anyone else was coming.

The girl spoke next, playing with her braid. “I’m Adrienne. I’m in Mr. Hardy’s sixth period class, and I’m a senior.”

“Your work’s up in the library right now, right?” the boy with glasses across from her asked suddenly.

She raised an eyebrow, but her curiosity softened. There was almost a smugness about it, perhaps from the validation. “Huh, that? Oh, yeah. So it is.”

The jock grinned, having reeled back up and now thoroughly examining everyone. “Dude, that thing is sick! The school better keep it.”

Kaylee had seen it a couple times, but not in detail. She resolved to go back and see it when this was all over. “Haven’t been in the library since they banned people from wearing headphones a year or so back.”

“It’s a stupid rule, and I’ve got a picture of it saved on my phone,” Adrienne replied. “Honestly. The only reason people go there anymore is to hang out. I don’t understand the headphone rule at all.”

The jock cleared his throat. “Alright. I’m Bruno, soccer captain, and a senior.” After a moment, he tagged on, “I’m in Hardass’s third period class.”

Kaylee raised an eyebrow. “Really?” She hadn't remembered him specifically being in her class, but then again, Hardy's third period class was a nightmare by most teachers' standards. 

Bruno glanced at her, now with a spark of recognition. As opposed to earlier, at least he was being... slightly nicer? She couldn’t really tell. “Hey, I may be dumb as a brick sometimes, but I don’t lie. You’re the kid who always hangs out in the back corner lookin’ like you’d rather be anywhere else.”

Adrienne nodded in agreement. “Who wouldn’t, in his class.”

“I never noticed you were in the class,” Kaylee replied to Bruno. He scoffed.

“‘Course. Hardass keeps yelling at you for having headphones in class, so I guess it makes sense.” He looked as if he were daring her to prove her wrong. As if his insinuation wasn’t true.

Kaylee huffed. “Okay, you got your point across.”

The glasses-wearing boy looked up, having taken out half the box’s load of parts in the time it took the three to introduce themselves. “I’m Gavin. Senior. Sixth period.” He looked down to the parts strewn in front of him. “I know we’re supposed to be getting the marbles into this goal, but this is ridiculous.” The LED display in the box blinked passively back at him. “I’m not sure how we’re incorporating a  _jump rope_ into this, but we better do it fast.” The other three leaned in closer to see what was in the box. Several ball-bearings and three marbles, as well as all sorts of useless and vaguely-helpful junk. “Rube Goldberg would be having a field day. We are, however, not smart enough to do this!” he continued.

“Uh... yeah, fuck that,” Bruno spat at the Jenga blocks stacked in the corner of the tub. “I have no idea how we could do this.”

Kaylee poked at something inside. “Yeah, uh, how... can opener? That’s my only statement on this.”

Adrienne sighed, pulling back. “It looks like we’re not getting this done. How many points was the trip worth?”

“160. It’s our final,” Kaylee responded back.

“As expected,” Gavin muttered, though it was unclear what he was saying that in reference to. She shot him a look. 

“What?”

“Hm? Nothing.”

Kaylee took an exasperated breath. So, they were going to be like _that_. Great. “Alright, fantastic new plan. We don’t do this and do literally anything else instead.”

Bruno got up with an annoyed noise, slinging his backpack back around his shoulder. “Yeah, I’m out.”

Gavin turned his head, still immersed in the visualization of pieces in place. “We’re stuck in the janky room. No way we’re getting out.”

The loud THUNK that echoed as Bruno tried the door and slammed his shoulder into it were proof of that. “What do you mean, the ‘janky’ room? All the rooms are ‘janky’,” Adrienne replied.

Gavin shook his head. “Technical error. Unless you can get a teacher in or out of the room with a key, the door locks both ways. Every single lock they’ve put in has always malfunctioned like this.”

Kaylee bolted over to try it. Definitely locked. “Oh, fantastic. How much you wanna bet Hardy _also_  told all the teachers that we shouldn’t be allowed out until the end of the day.”

“I’d bet 20 actual dollars. At least we have our stuff,” Bruno scoffed, kicking the wall and throwing his backpack onto the ground again. “Anyone got connections?”

Adrienne shrugged. “No one I know’s taken shop in the last three or four years. Journalism teacher’s a riot, but she’s not about to go cross Mr. Hardy anytime soon.”

Kaylee shook her head. “Janitor only comes around here at the end of the day.”

Gavin shook his head as well, but it was more aborted when he seemed to have an idea with some of the junk he pulled out. “Computer lab here hasn’t been used in a year. The one on the other side of the school is better anyways.” He sighed with an exasperated tone, slamming some sort of metal object down onto the carpeted floor. “I give. Mr. Hardy is a sadist.”

“Everyone knows that,” Adrienne responded. “Alright. So, what happened to you guys, that you couldn’t make the trip?” she asked, hiking herself back up onto the desk. “I got the flu.”

Gavin scoffed. “Really? The flu?”

Surprisingly, Adrienne shook her head. “It was really more of a bad reaction to getting a flu shot and then that meningitis one, you know, the one that got advertised. I was shaking really badly, and I was nauseous all the time, so my parents got a doctor’s note and sent it in. Didn’t really know what was going on, other than that I had the worst, like... four days of my life.” She frowned. “And I got nothing done, too. No art 'cause of the shaking, which also meant no homework, and all the people I knew were out in DC, so no friends to talk to.”

Bruno made a mock gasp of surprise. “An artist with friends? In my high school?”

“Hey, don’t be an asshole, we’re all mad enough at being locked in a room because our teacher’s crazy,” Kaylee remarked. “I don’t see a jock who won the locker room dick-measuring contest being the one to talk here.”

Gavin snorted. “Yeah, you’re the loner, and I’m the nerd! We’ve covered all our bases. It’s like The Breakfast Club.“

“It’s only The Breakfast Club if we were in detention,” Adrienne replied, matter-of-factly. “Back to the point.”

Gavin shrugged. “I was at a convention. I was in the area, but Mr. Hardy didn’t allow me to claim credit for showing up afterwards. I went to one or two events in the morning, set up time to go to the big events on the trip, and then Mr. Hardy didn’t count it. Ruined the con for me.”

Bruno made a noise similar to rumbling thunder. “Sheesh. That sucks the worst outta what we coulda brought to the table. You showed up and he didn’t even give you credit!”

Adrienne shook her head. Kaylee leaned back, kicking up her legs onto the empty tub. “He basically said ‘fuck you for having a vacation in the same area’, even though you’re ruining your vacation for showing up.”

Gavin nodded. Bruno stretched. “I might as well. Championships in regionals was that week, and the match fell on the same day as the beginning of the trip, so I couldn’t show up to the rest of it.”

Adrienne raised an eyebrow. “Did you guys win?”

“Yeah,” Bruno scoffed. “Hardass's still making me do the fuckin' time, though.”

They all looked expectantly at Kaylee, who blinked a few times. She'd kind of been zoning out a little, trying to focus on the song playing in her headphones. “Oh. Now I feel kinda bad.”

“What? You could have a worse reason,” Gavin countered.

“Or a better one like those two,” Adrienne replied. “Come on, you have to tell us something.”

Kaylee frowned. “Admin, for whatever reason, didn’t approve my reduced cost appeal, so I couldn’t go ‘cuz I can’t pay it.” There was a chuckle, but from who she couldn’t quite tell. “I told you guys it was bad.”

“Hey, no, no, no,” Adrienne remarked. “You’re not... terrible. You could have just not gone, and then we’d actually be laughing.”

Kaylee sighed, tapping the sides of her headphones with a few fingers. “Yeah, yeah. It’s a stupid reason, whatever.” If she could, she would have just rewinded time and not shown up, but _one hundred and sixty points_ was a _really big deal._

Gavin shook his head in a quick “no” gesture. “It’s understandable. If you don’t have the money, you don’t. And Mr. Hardy’s deadline for paying was admittedly a little fucked.”

“A week!” Bruno yelled. “Some of us can’t get money in a week! What an asshole.”

Kaylee felt a small flicker of relief. “Yeah, I worked my ass off, but bills were due. A lot happened.”

Adrienne raised an eyebrow. “You’re working?”

“Yeah, you know Aeon Comics? The shop by the Robertson’s? I do shifts there. Decent pay for six or seven hours of standing around and being nice to neckbeards.”

Gavin seemed to light up a little. “Hey, that means I’ve seen you a couple times. You were the person who told that guy off because he was trying to steal those anime figurines, right?”

Kaylee turned a little red at that. “Y-yeah? Oh! That guy. Yeah, not my best moment.”

“Cool.” Adrienne leaned forwards, her hand propping up her head, her tone betraying how she really felt about that. “But really? You couldn’t pay it?”

Kaylee frowned again. “Sounds like you've never paid bills.” There was a mild heaviness that set in, as if they weren’t quite expecting her to say it like that. Or perhaps it was just awkward, or they were seeing if they could get something out about her home life.

She never liked talking about her family. When she was a kid, people looked at her a certain way if she said she didn’t have a mother. It was easier to smile and let the topic go, or ignore them entirely. Her dad always said that her mother was busy if there was a parent-teacher conference, or to his co-workers, but never mentioned her. He said that the two of them were better off without her. And yet, she never got the story behind that framed picture by his bedside.

Still, she refused to think about it much and brought her attention to the present. Adrienne had been prevented from prying any further when an emergency siren sounded through the announcement speakers. Kaylee let her displeasure show for a moment before slipping her headphones back on again to muffle out the piercing siren.

“Attention. This is an emergency situation. Please make your way down to the basement. We are under attack by an unknown enemy.” At that, Kaylee paused, her eyebrows angled in thought, and glanced up at the speakers with something approaching concern. “We repeat. Please make your way down to the basement and await further instructions. We are under attack by an unknown enemy. This is a state of emergency.”

It was slightly drowned out from Bruno, who was attempting to break down the door with grunts of effort and a whole lot of slamming into the door. Unfortunately, school doors are always more solid than they look, and he couldn’t do anything. The announcement continued on, adding more stress to the situation when Gavin and Adrienne both joined in making as much noise as possible to draw any outsiders’ attention. Kaylee rose up on her toes, peeking through the window and past the three struggling students, but no one was out there. She was slammed back into the floor rather ungracefully when the other three actually began panicking, the landing jacking up the volume on her headphones. She must have hit her phone on the landing.

_**IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME, IF I COULD FIND A WAY** _

Yeah, sounded about right for this trainwreck of a day.


	2. Bruno: Descent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this just in: i did indeed finish these introduction chapters, but the formatting in them is Wonky (tm) so i had to go back and edit some.  
> again, my writing is not the best in these, but we're starting to get some real Drama.

“Ow!” Kaylee yelled. Her headphones were blasting Cher louder than the sirens, and Bruno was very tempted to break them in half to make them stop. Luckily, the smaller girl’s hands fumbled to her phone and turned it down, though he could still hear the vocals going despite the volume being turned down. “That fucking hurt, guys!”

“You’re the one who darted behind us!” Gavin yelled. From what Bruno had seen, he wasn’t usually this unnerved. “Oh no, oh no, we’re going to _die_.“ The boy scampered underneath the tables against the wall that were holding a few monitors up.

Adrienne had moved off into the corner, perhaps to remove herself from the stress of the situation. It was kind of funny, the way the stress infected even her corner, and she curled up on herself. Kaylee shook her head, pushing her headphones up like Bruno had seen so many times during Hardass’s lectures, and curled up on the floor. Bruno scowled. He couldn’t let it show, just like that first match in championships. Their chance of winning was little to none.

He stormed over to the corner of the room, finding the discarded lost-and-found jacket pile and sifting through for a few. Those were pressed against the bottom of the door, and one tied hesitantly around the biggest air vent in the room, just in case it was a gas attack. He moved to the printer, opening the paper latch to grab a few sheets and tape them over the windows. In case it was a shooter. Okay. He turned off the main lights, the single safety light suddenly causing a stark white highlight to outline the few figures.

Adrienne looked like every horror movie protagonist, curled up in the corner and completely ready to die. Kaylee looked almost dead, but the rise and fall of her chest and the barely-audible music told otherwise. Only Gavin’s shoes were visible outside the overhanging table he’d fit under. Bruno had a much better idea, and that was to edge the teacher’s desk ever-so-slowly over to the door, firmly barricading it. The fallen picture frames and papers seemed to imply this room hadn’t been used in forever, judging by the dust now swirling around the room. He waved it away, taping up a few more papers in front of the window for good measure.

Now, to check on everyone. They were all caught in varying grips of panic, and the easiest to talk to would be Gavin. Well, Bruno thought that until he checked below the table to find the boy hesitantly murmuring to himself. Kaylee was just as unlikely to even talk to him, tuning everything out like that. Adrienne... What did he know from experience?

He carefully sidled over, sitting down next to her. His sports team this year had someone who would have some pretty severe panic attacks, so he could see what was up pretty quickly. He pressed closer, making sure she could feel him breathing. “Take a few breaths. In, out. Follow me,” he said quietly, slowing his breathing. In-two-three-four out-two-three-four.

It seemed that it helped pass the time, too. He could see her slowly unwind, watch her breathe easier and collect herself. Okay. One down. “Can I leave?” he asked, making sure to keep his voice quiet. “To check up on everyone else.”

She nodded, flashing him five fingers. Either a stop motion, or she needed him back in five minutes. Fair. He moved over, considering which of the other two would be easier to deal with. Gavin was unlikely to shut him out, as compared to Kaylee on the floor, so he peeked his head underneath the table.

The boy’s murmurs weren’t any more audible, but Bruno managed to coax him from under the table. He then set about putting his letterman’s jacket over the boy’s shoulders, careful to watch for any sign he was needed. Gavin was lost in his own little world. Good, at least for now. Bruno checked in with Adrienne again, who was almost actually talking, so it was a quick matter of crouching down to check on Kaylee. The girl looked more dead inside than particularly stressed, so Bruno crouched down to tap her shoulder.

“What,” she said, sounding like she would rather stay on the floor. He moved a headphone off.

“We’re not dead yet, in case that wasn’t obvious,” Bruno remarked.

“So?”

“So, I would rather make the most of it now.” The two had the brief staredown of people who had just been or were about to be in violent opposition to each other. He saw the kind of look his soccer opponents gave him when they thought he wasn’t looking. She’d definitely seen him at his worst, inciting quickly-reprimanded chaos in Hardass’s class. Or maybe it was their mutual wariness around each other, since they did just touch on her whole family thing.

Something she didn’t seem inclined to talk about. “Coach was a hassle, but he did say somethin’ at the beginning of this year. If you can’t stand the people you’re stuck with, learn to get along with them. So, at least make a couple friends before we all die, right?” He offered that wisdom as if it was something he believed. Not necessarily true, but he did at least believe in the principle of it.

Kaylee nodded at his advice. “At least go out with people who can stand me. Fair.” She rose up, one hand still on her headphones. He couldn’t tell exactly what was blasting through them, given that she turned them down, but he would figure by the instrumentals it was another song that she liked the style of.

“Okay. I have a game plan, kinda,” Bruno said. At this point Adrienne seemed to have recovered and shuffled closer, Gavin finally having calmed down enough to at least listen. “We figure out exactly what threat we’re under, and then decide to panic from there.”

The others all nodded. Gavin, whose phone was already out of his pocket, started tapping away. Kaylee reluctantly followed, and Bruno made sure to give Adrienne some attention so that she wouldn’t relapse. Gavin frowned. “All the articles I’m seeing say it’s a bomb.”

Kaylee shook her head. “Too far back. If you search up today’s date it’s better.”

Gavin tapped a few more times. “Oh. Okay. We could be dead.”

The trio looking at him made him blink, then turn back to his phone. It was hard to ignore the shudder in his hands. “Well, they’re saying an extreme burst of radiation might be going off soon. Some place up in the mountains that was abandoned sent out the warning signal.”

“Y-you mean some facility up in the mountains that no one knew about is sending out this signal?” Adrienne asked. The quiver in her voice was definitely from the stress. “So it’s some c-conspiracy thing?”

Bruno sighed. “Sounds like it.” Now that everyone was calmer than before, he could stop funneling his panic straight into his anger. Anger at the whole damn thing, Hardass, his circumstances. There was rightful anger there for sure; Gavin’s reason for being here really got to him, and of course, if Bruno was giving the school a good reputation he shouldn’t have been doing this stupid thing. But rules were apparently rules as far as Hardass was concerned.

Kaylee looked up. “You okay there, captain?” It hadn’t been meant to be mocking, but he was already mad enough to consider it. “You look like you’re gonna burst.”

“Shut up,” Bruno growled, turning away from the group. It certainly seemed to come as a surprise to the other two, whose brief whispers to Kaylee seemed to implicate her. She defended herself. He was seeing red.

It came as no surprise, then, that a yelp of surprise and a few sniffles caused him to turn back around, assuming they were ready to make fun of his temper. An inklike trail of crimson was dripping down Gavin’s face, though there were no bruises. Both the girls had their hands up to their faces, and he could see crimson staining Adrienne’s hand in particular. He would have dismissed it had the sight not knocked him out of his rage.

He placed a hand to his own lips to find the iron scent of blood filling his nose and the taste of it on his tongue. “Hey, what the fuck,” he muttered. The trio shook their heads, though Kaylee did so a bit slower. He grabbed a tissue from the misplaced box, placing it and delivering an expert kick to send it towards the trio sitting on the floor. “What the actual fuck is going on?”

“It’s not a nuke, we’d be dead,” Gavin shrugged. “Maybe we just got gamma ray bursts? So, cancer? We die?”

Adrienne shook her head. “I have a f-feeling if it was, we would be feeling it.”

Kaylee tilted forwards, pressing her other hand to her head. “I’m feeling _something_. Definitely a headache.”

The other two shook their heads. “I’m not,” Bruno muttered back, which seemed to sum up the rest of their experiences. That alone reignited his anger. The whole damn thing was starting to overwhelm him. “Dammit! What the fuck is going on?”

“We told you, we don’t know!” Gavin responded.

“Wasn’t asking you, dammit!”

Kaylee shook her head. “Maybe instead of fighting we should try to find out?” she offered, the bite on her normally-scathing remarks muffled and subdued.

Adrienne patted her reassuringly on the back. “I mean, the n-news said nothing about it, so I would guess maybe n-no one knows,” she explained.

The sound of a fist impacting against the walls got their attention. Bruno punched the wall again, and the three definitely noticed. “Dammit! Fuck!”

“H-hey dude, maybe calm down a little,” Gavin stuttered, his hands up.

“How do you think I’m s’posed to calm down?! First Hardass, then this shit, I am NOT CALMIN’ DOWN!!!”

“H-hey!” Adrienne yelped.

“Woah, dude!” Kaylee looked up and went pale. “Yeah, um, dude, chill!! Really!!! Chill!!!”

Bruno smashed a foot into the wall, and that was when the two that could move jumped up, Kaylee trying her best to stand and failing to, instead nearly falling over again. Bruno yelled again, whirling on them.

Without hesitation, his fist shot out and into Gavin’s face.


End file.
